


Frozen Moments

by HDLynn



Series: The Caretaker Series [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Emotions are Complicated, F/M, Mild Language, Mutual Pining, Pining, Sharing a Bed, Touch-Starved Din, helmet loopholes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:28:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25072384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HDLynn/pseuds/HDLynn
Summary: When the Razor Crest gets stuck on an ice planet and the heating goes out there is only one thing that can be done which terrifies a Mandalorian; sharing a bed.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Reader, The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)/Reader
Series: The Caretaker Series [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1720672
Comments: 14
Kudos: 218





	Frozen Moments

The bounty had been tricky to find, in that they had been hiding out in the middle of the boonies. After being located, it had been almost suspiciously easy how the Mandalorian had gotten the ex-spice runner into cuffs and back onto the Crest. Only one issue had popped up as potentially bad and that was the weather. Sarna was a small planet known for its frozen tundras as well as massive thunder snowstorms, like the one currently barreling towards them.

Even as he brought the mouthy, yet inept, bounty up the ramp of the ship Din felt the sharp sting of cold wind at his back. The very air smelled of the coming storm, of snow, ice, and ozone. The skies had grown dark with clouds, and he had even gotten a little worried about locating the ship, when a short yet sudden snow squall had popped up on the trek back. Din had been grateful to get back when they did, just as a streak of lightning lit up the sky, the haze of snow defusing the sharpness of the crackling electricity in an uncanny blue-gray halo.

Still, it had taken precious time wrangling the bounty into carbonite. Every single bounty struggled before he put them in, it got cold.

Weather this cold started to make his joints ache and scream at the physical activity. Or maybe he was getting old? Din scoffed at that. He might be closer to forty than he was thirty, but that didn’t make him old, did it?

As Din finished up with the carbonite freezer he glanced over and saw his clever girl, and knew she was concerned. She always wore that look when he came back from a hunt, and the air pressure from the storm didn’t help the feeling of stress, it just compounded it.

“We’re headed out, Cyar’ika,” Din explained.

He was up the ladder before he realized that he had let the affectionate term slip out…again. It had been slipping out more and more often lately. He couldn’t help wonder when she was going to ask him what it meant. He wasn’t even sure if he would be able to tell her yet.

As he got into the cockpit, he saw the storm had truly descended and it was bad. He could hardly see more than a few inches past the glass and there was ice gathering thickly around the edges, as well. It looked like this was some sort of shitty combination of snow and ice.

He heard, more than saw, his clever girl placing the kid into the makeshift booster seat he had crafted out of an old gun case before she settled into the other seat behind him.

The sensors screamed at him as he started the engines. Din quickly looked over the readings and it was apparent that, if he did try to take off right now, the engines would most likely rip themselves apart. Some of the thruster panels were stuck firmly shut, probably with ice. Without those panels functioning properly, they weren’t going anywhere soon.

“Kriff, kriff, kriff!” Din ground out. He slammed the buttons to shut down the engine systems, before sitting back in his seat taking a deep breath. This wasn’t the end of the world, but he wanted off this fucking frozen wasteland of a planet. This bounty had been the third puck and Din just wanted to be done. The trip had taken a week longer than he would have liked already, and storms on Sarna could last anywhere from several hours to weeks. There just was no telling.

He knew she was sitting there, letting him collect himself. He was grateful for it, she always had a way of knowing when to let him compose himself or when to push him. He took another deep breath and forced himself to relax his jaw and shoulders as he pushed the air out of his lungs in a long steady stream, grounding himself.

“Engine panels are frozen shut. Won’t be able to take off till I can clear them when the storm passes…it could be a whole, maybe a week or so,” he explained.

“Is there anything I can help out with?”

He could have shaken his head, his mirdala girl was always so willing to help.  
“No, we’ll be good. Got rations and the ship will maintain a good internal temperature. The insulation and heating systems can handle the cold of deep space, this storm will be fine,” he explained.

They both watched the heavy snowfall continue to fly past the cockpit window. The sky had turned a dull whiteish-gray glow. Neither one of them spoke for a while, just taking in the sight. Din normally would have wanted to do something. He still did. But there wasn’t anything he could do, so he forced himself to just stop for a moment, as unnatural as it felt.

“Do you ever feel an overwhelming sense of being alone?” she asked suddenly, her voice soft. She had wrapped her arms around herself, looking fragile in her uncertainty. Now she was looking at him, waiting for his answer.

She was good at that. The perfectly crafted look of patient expectancy that made him want to spill out all the words he held so tightly. He was going soft. Or maybe he always had been, he had just been better at putting walls up around that softness until more recently.

Din settled back into the pilot’s seat, using the few moments of settling in physically to also let him order his thoughts. That was one hell of a question, one that took the oxygen right out of his lungs. He figured brevity was in order so he didn’t sound like a stuttering mess.

“Yes,” it came out softer and quieter than he thought possible with the modulator, yet it still filled the small space.

She nodded her head, looking a little relieved.

Din knew the feeling, it was…nice in a way. Nice to know you weren’t alone in how it could feel so overwhelmingly lonely at times. He used to be better at ignoring that feeling, the craving for something more. Pushing himself to do other things to try and fill up that void. Then, he found the kid, and then her. Everything had changed as the days with his almost-family started to pile up, and Din Djarin was starting to think he wasn’t so alone.

They settled back into a moment of silence, companions in the vast emptiness of the swirling storm.

But while his clever girl looked back outside, he couldn’t look away from her. He unashamedly drank her in, suddenly greedy for the sight of her in his oath-created solitude. The gentle curves of her face, the line of her nose, the way her brow crinkled in thought as she gazed outside, and then how she rested her cheek in that hand, eyes soft and distant as she got lost in her thoughts. What he would have given at that moment for that hand to be his, gloves tossed aside and feeling the warmth and softness of her skin on his. It wasn’t the first time he had had that thought or similar ones. If she looked at him in that moment, Din was sure he would crumble, but she didn’t, a streak of lightning lighting up her features in a flash of soft blue.

Din took a steadying breath, his hands flexing with a soft creak of leather. The Mandalorian felt relieved, but Din felt gutted when she remained lost in her thoughts, eyes distant. He was rather sure he said more in that silence than he ever could have with words, if only she had noticed.

~*~

You woke with a start when the door to your little room slid open, the weight of your body feeling weighed down in bed by sleep. Groggily rubbed at your eyes against the light coming from the hallway. There was a figure clearly outlined in the doorway. Din, not as bulky as he normally was for some reason, your fuzzy brain told you, but you couldn’t figure why.

Immediately assuming something must be wrong, you started to get out of bed, fumbling and half-asleep. Unable to untangle your legs from the blanket cocoon, you mumbled in consternation.

“Don’t get up,” Din’s modulated voice filled the small space even though you could tell he was trying to be quiet. “I have to check something, I just need to leave the kid with you. You can go back to bed with him.”

You mumbled some kind of reply, no idea if it was coherent. It probably wasn’t, but you took the child and tucked him into your arms underneath the blanket. The child’s breathing was deep and steady, still asleep. Din closed the door with a soft swish and click as you settled back down.

But now that you were awake, you were very awake. Shuffling deeper into the blankets you tried not worry about what was going on since Din hadn’t seemed super worried? ‘Unless he was trying to, shelter you’ again, your brain supplied unbidden. It wouldn’t be the first time Din tried to keep an issue under wraps to figure it out on his own.

As time passed you started to become aware of how cold it was getting. The moaning of the high winds buffeting the ship loud in your ears instead of the soft steady sound of the air systems.

Your nose was burning cold and the exposed skin of your face was getting tingly. Shit, why wasn’t the heat on? No heating system wouldn’t be good seeing as you all were currently landed on a fucking ice planet. You groaned internally, so not to wake the child.

Making sure the kid was wrapped up and toasty warm, you left the small room to find Din.

The hallway was even colder than the room and there was no sign of him in the artificial light. Quickly padding down to the ladder, the cold seeped through your socks. The cold metal of the ladder stung your hands as you made your way down, the rungs having become familiar with the many months spent on board.

After you got to the lower level, you immediately found where Din had gone. He was currently stuffed halfway into an access panel of the ship, muttering under his breath. He had taken off most of his armor and was just wearing normal looking thermal layers, but, from the modulated tone of his muttered curses, his helmet remained.

This was for sure a technical breakdown and it was quite obvious at this point it was the heating system that was the issue.

“Din?”

He jumped, banging his helmet on the low ceiling inside the access panel with a sharp clanging sound.

“Shoot! Sorry, Din, are you all right?”

You moved closer to try and help. Your hand hovered for a moment before hesitantly finding a place on his shoulder after he had sat down on the floor with a thump. His body language spoke to the daze he was in.

“Kriff, Cyar’ika,” he said without bite as he stretched out his neck before looking up. “Why are you out of bed with just socks? You’re freezing.”

“Yeah, well, I couldn’t get back to sleep so here I am,” you said, voice up-ticking with false upbeatness.

Din grunted in response, remaining seated on the floor. Since he didn’t seem like he was going to tip over, you reluctantly removed your hand and immediately stuffed both hands in your armpits to warm them up.

“So, the heating system is down?” you asked, though really it was more a statement than a question.

“I’m just finishing up fixing the issue. Could you hand me that fuse on that crate?”

Taking a step over to the crate, you found the fuse before turning back. Din’s head and most of his upper body had disappeared into the access area again. You knelt beside him, waiting with the fuse while cold seeped into your knees. How he was laying on the cold floor without complaint you had no idea, it felt like a block of ice.

You didn’t have to wait long for he snaked out his gloved left hand with a muffled request for the part. Placing the fuse in his hand, you couldn’t help but notice how his sleeve had shifted back to reveal a small expanse of his wrist. You flushed as his hand disappeared into the access panel again, feeling rather silly. After all, the man had given you CPR some weeks ago, and yet here you were, blushing over two inches of golden-brown skin. But it felt more intimate at this moment in your pajamas and Din being without his armor.

“Should be set,” Din said as he wiggled out of the access panel, a bit more carefully than his last attempt to exit it. He popped up — you no idea how he could be so agile sometimes — and pressed some commands into the temperature settings panel.

The heating system roared to life for a moment before there was a horrible grinding sound followed by a loud metallic crunch as the whole system shut down again. You stood by Din for a beat, and then another, neither of you speaking as you shivered beside him.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen, was it?” you ask, grimacing.

“No,” Din said, his shoulder’s slumping. He looked defeated. “That sounded like something I can’t just jury-rig.”

“Oh,” was all you could think to offer.

“Kriff,” he said softly. He sounded so tired.

“You said there was a town nearby right? I'm sure they have a repair shop,” you offer hesitantly.

“Two days on foot… in normal conditions. We have to wait for the storm to pass.”

There was a pause in the conversation as you processed that.

“But… didn’t you say that storms on this planet can last weeks?!”

“Usually, the long storms are only a couple days, but yes, they can last longer,” Din said, resigned to being snowed in. “We’re going to have to conserve body heat since we don’t know how long we’ll be here.”

Your brain stopped working for a moment. He couldn’t mean…that? Sharing a bed?

Of course, that is what he meant, what else could he mean under the circumstances? Exactly, there was nothing else he could mean. Sharing a bed was not inherently sexual, nothing weird at all. Just two people and their green alien baby trying to not freeze to death.

“Uhhhh, yeah no. That makes sense, perfect sense. Of course,” you ramble, your face turning hot as you shifted from one foot to another with newfound jittery energy.

Din’s modulator started to crackle with words, but you interrupt him. “Well, I’m going to layer up some more, these socks just aren’t cutting it.”  
“I’ll be up after you,” came Din’s delayed reply but you were already climbing up the ladder.

~*~

  
Din puttered around for a while, well, maybe an hour or so, cleaning up the tools he had been using and wiping up his oil-covered hands. He was stalling and he knew it. Even as the winds roared around the Crest and he felt the cold creep deeper into his bones, he felt nervous and awkward. He did not like that at all, why did he feel this way about the idea of preserving warmth? It was common sense to do so, it would help keep them all alive, and yet…

He sighed. He knew exactly why he was stalling and he was a fool.

Maker, he had seen how jumpy she had immediately gotten when she had parsed out his meaning earlier. She was nervous, he just didn’t know what to do with that information. He didn’t like being the reason she was uncomfortable.

The door to her little room was still open a bit. She lay with her back to the door the child having cuddled into her arms and his little green head resting on her shoulder. Two large dark eyes blinked open at him sleepily and the kid gave him a drowsy smile that brought a soft grin to Din’s face.

He put a gloved finger to his helmet, indicting for the kid to be quiet. He could tell from her breathing she had indeed fallen asleep versus trying hard to pretend. Din had not above playing along with that pretense for her benefit, but was sort of relieved he didn’t have to. That had been why he had dawdled for so long, after all, and here the stars had given both of them some amount of grace in this situation.

The child made a quiet cooing sound before settling back down to sleep again. He was more than content to be with both of his favorite people. 

Din already had taken off most of his beskar when they had first gone to bed originally and hadn’t bothered putting it back on. It would have just gotten in the way when he had been contorting himself to get in the small access panel.

It left him in his kute and feeling almost naked in comparison. But he still had his helmet on, the heavy and cold piece of metal weighing heavily on his shoulders. Maker, if any part of his helmet touched her or the kid during the night, Din knew the shock of the cold metal would wake them instantly.

He weighed his options and came to the firm conclusion that she respected his beliefs enough to not look at him in the unlikely event that she woke up before him. He couldn’t fathom the amount of sleep her body seemed to need to properly function, but he wasn’t perhaps the healthiest example of good sleeping habits. He usually only needed about four, maybe five hours, of sleep total and that was usually split up in smaller chunks. A perk to wearing a helmet was that it was easy enough to take a short nap just about anywhere. There had been plenty of times he had let himself dose off in the pilot’s seat before.

So, he closed the door, leaving the room in pitch blackness and took off the helmet, not wanting to argue the finer points of his oaths at the moment. The kid was his clan, his foundling, so that was no issue. But the room was so dark he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face, so he figured this was good enough for the situation. Loopholes. He hadn’t been one to look for them before, but here he was searching for them now. Grasping at them like blades of grass being blown around in the wind.

Setting the helmet down on the floor beside the bed, Din slowly eased onto the bed and under the pile of blankets. She had collected from the entirety of the ship and even had found one of his worn-out cloaks. He could not help but smile, she hadn’t been kidding that she was going to layer up. She was wearing her jacket and gloves, Din figured she had put on other layers, as well. Probably more socks. She had also found a knitted cap somewhere and carefully tucked the Kid's ears under it to keep them from getting too cold while the rest of him was swaddled.

The cot was small, so Din found himself right up against her, his body lying up against her back. Stars, he really couldn’t pretend to himself why he’d been apprehensive earlier. It was, of course, because he liked her, maybe…even loved her.

But love was a large word to be examining right now. He might not be great with feelings, but he was pretty good at ignoring them, or so Din told himself even as he pulled her and the kid closer. His arm around her waist was just keeping them all warm and alive, of course. He might have been able to even believe himself if he had not instinctively buried his face in her hair and became overwhelmed by the sensation.

Her hair smelled of sweetness, of the honey and milk scented shampoo she had bought at the last town they had been at. Her body, nestled in the curve of his own, was soft and warm. Din didn’t know what to do with that information running through his brain so he tried to go to sleep, having traded his helmet for the veil of her hair. This was perhaps a moment of weakness, on his part but it would have to be enough.

~*~*~

**Author's Note:**

> Translations:  
> Cyar’ika - beloved / darling / sweetheart  
> Mirdala - clever  
> Kute - bodysuit worn under armor


End file.
